The Greenback Beret

Is it wrong to commit murder? Yes. Is it wrong to take a human life in the defense of an innocent life? No. Is it wrong for a country to wage unjustified and aggressive war against another country? Yes. Is it wrong for a country to wage a purely defensive war to protect the lives and property of its citizens? No.

Since WWII, the U.S. has fought unconstitutional (undeclared), unjustified (the US was never attacked), immoral and aggressive wars in Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama and, now, twice in Iraq. What has been the result of all of these unjustified wars? These wars caused the deaths, suffering and maiming of tens of thousands of American soldiers and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent foreign civilians.

Who benefited from all these wars? Our ruling oligarchy and all their cronies reaped enormous profits and political power from all these wars.

The founders of our country established a republic – not an empire. It is a truth of history that healthy republics tend to shun wars of unjustified and naked aggression but that empires openly embrace them.

The U.S. Congress and all U.S. soldiers swear to uphold and defend the Constitution (our most basic law) against all enemies foreign and domestic. Why, then, have they allowed U.S. presidents, since Truman, to usurp unconstitutional powers and drag this country into one unjustified and aggressive war after another? The answer to that question, I’m sad to say, is this; The U.S. is no longer a healthy republic of laws and sober deliberation but has degenerated into an unlawful, immoral, brutal, despotic and aggressive empire instead.

Sergeant Barry Saddler wrote the song The Green Beret. What makes men like him glorify fighting and dying for an evil empire that is wholly opposed to the cherished American ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Are they really that ignorant of the truth? Maybe, if he and others in the military weren’t so blind to the gross sins of our current ruling oligarchy, they would finally take a truly honorable, moral and principled stand. They would absolutely refuse to participate in any more wars of ungodly aggression. They would tell that gang of homicidal maniacs up in Washington to go to hell!

Of all people, Sergeant Saddler should have realized this; he was deceived. He was used and abused by a very cunning, powerful and evil elite for their own despicable ends and purposes. As a fair, merciful and stern warning to future generations of fellow would-be cannon fodder, I wish that Sergeant Saddler had composed these words of truth instead:

Fighting mercenaries from the sky Clueless men who jump and die Men who mean just what their masters say The duped men of the Greenback Beret

Chorus The Empire’s wings are upon their chests These are men The Establishment’s impressed, One hundred men they’ll fool today But only three get a Greenback Beret

Trained to obey their master’s every command Trained to kill in every land Men who fight for nothing right Don’t think too deep, you’re a Greenback Beret

Chorus The Empire’s wings are upon their chests These are men, The Establishment’s impressed, One hundred men they’ll fool today But only three get a Greenback Beret

Back at home a young wife waits Her Greenback Beret has met his fate He has died for those who oppress Leaving her a gasping last request

Chorus Don’t put The Empire’s wings on my son’s chest Don’t make him one of The Establishment’s impressed, May God forbid, he’ll be fooled one day And be sacrificed as a Greenback Beret

Song ends with a voice monologue

“War is a racket. It always has been. Is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.” ~ General Smedley Butler (USMC)

September 28, 2005